What is the Difference between Karate and Kungfu?
Karate and Tae Kwon Do are considered ‘hard styles’ whereas Kungfu is considered to be a ‘soft style’. In hard styles, when executing punches they are isolated to just the upper body and emphasize rigidness of the shoulders to show power. Northern Shaolin on the other hand, utilizes the leg stances and twisting of the waist to express explosive power. With the twisting, the power of a punch is emphasized through the legs, waist, torso, shoulder, and finally the arm. Many of the Shaolin hand movements are not linear and require more indirect applications. Northern Shaolin has a very good proportion of upper body and lower body applications which include punching, kicking, jumping, crouching, sweeping, throwing, and qin na, just to name a few. To read more about the basic Tan Tui routines, click here.
